I am thrilled that the Chicago Cubs have won baseball’s World Series for the first time since 1908, mainly because they now have no reason to whine, complain, pity themselves, and generally annoy the living bejesus out of non-Cub fans.
I’m sure euphoria reigns among those who regard Wrigley Field as a sacred place (I’m in that crowd) and will carry through the winter and into next season’s opening day.
At some point, however, it’s going to dawn on Cubs’ fans that they’re going to have to reinvent themselves. The curse is dead. The fellowship of the miserable is gone.
There’s nothing left for Cubs’ fans to moan and groan about when they gather at their favorite watering holes across America.
And to that I can only say, “Hallelujah!”
The curse lasted so long there got to be certain smugness among Cub fans. When you were around them, you couldn’t complain about your favorite team’s bad luck because they would only smirk and top your story. Nobody knew the trouble they’d seen – except, of course, other Cub fans.
They were bonded by bad luck, failure, disaster, and Steve Bartman. It was their identity, and they were sort of perversely proud of it. The mere mention of Ernie Banks, the beloved “Mr. Cub,” was an invitation for a soliloquy on how sad it was that Ernie never got to play in a World Series.
The Wailing Wall had nothing on Wrigley. Year after year, they came, they saw, and they commiserated. Remember how the 1984 team took a 2-0 lead on San Diego in the National League best-of-five playoffs and managed to blow it?
But now, Cubs fans, those days are as dead as metal spikes. Now you are the guys on top. Finally, after 108 years, champions again of the baseball world!
The question now is: Will you revel in success as happily as you did in frustration?
I should say here that I’m happy for the authentic Cub fans more than I am the Cubby-come-latelys. You can tell the difference by how old their gear is. If the cap or T-shirt is brand new, chances are you’re looking at one of those pseudo-fans who just want to get in on whatever is trendy.
As we ponder how Cubs fans will handle the end of the curse, we also should note who inherits the mantle of frustration. Until now, the Cubs had not even played in the Series since 1945. So who now has the longest stretch between appearances?
Well, I suppose we must begin with the two franchises that have never appeared in the World Series – the Seattle Mariners of the American League and the Washington Nationals of the National.
The Mariners joined the majors as an expansion team in 1977, so next year will be the 40th anniversary of their existence. Going 0-for-39 so far is very impressive, considering that they once had Ken Griffey Jr. and Alex Rodriguez as teammates.
The nation’s capitol has been the home of a major-league franchise at one time or another for years. One version of the Washington Senators left town to become the Minnesota Twins. Another bolted to become the Texas Rangers.
The current reincarnation came to Washington in 2005 from Montreal, where the franchise was known as the Expos. Pete Rose once played for Montreal. At any rate, it hasn’t been around long enough to register on the angst meter.
So the new team that has the most right to feel sorry for itself is – drum roll, please – the Pittsburgh Pirates, who haven’t appeared in the World Series since 1979, the year of Willie Stargell and the “We Are Fam-i-lee” theme song borrowed from Sly and The Family Stone.
On the Pirates’ heels, with the year of their most recent World Series appearance in parenthesis, are the Milwaukee Brewers (1982), the Baltimore Orioles (1983), the Los Angeles Dodgers (1988), the Oakland Athletics (1990), and the Reds (also 1990).
Since it has been a mere 37 years since the Pirates last appeared in the Series, you can’t really compare their fans’ sense of doom and gloom with what developed on the North Side of Chicago since the Cubs last appeared in the Series.
Plus, the ’79 Pirates won the title, meaning their 37 years without a championship isn’t in the same league with the Cubs’ 108 years in the Land of the Also-Ran. In fact, it’s highly likely that no professional franchise ever again will go that long between titles.
So, Pirate fans, the crying towel is passed to you. Please, please use it more sparingly than Cubs’ fans.
Billy Reed is a member of the U.S. Basketball Writers Hall of Fame, the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame, the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame and the Transylvania University Hall of Fame. He has been named Kentucky Sports Writer of the Year eight times and has won the Eclipse Award twice. Reed has written about a multitude of sports events for over four decades, but he is perhaps one of media’s most knowledgeable writers on the Kentucky Derby